Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming system, a service providing server, an information processing terminal, an image forming device and a non-transitory computer readable recording medium.
Description of the Background Art
In recent years, service providing servers have been installed on a cloud on an internet, and various types of cloud services have been provided over the internet. The cloud services include software services which allow document edit or data processing on the cloud by running a variety of programs on the service providing server besides storage services allowing management of data such as document data, for instance, by storing the data in the service providing server. Users are allowed to access the cloud service at anytime and anywhere as long as they are able to go online, resulting in enhanced user-friendliness. As an example of a way to use the cloud service, the user is allowed to access the service providing server via an information processing terminal such as a smart phone or a tablet terminal at outside, and send documents data, for instance, stored in the service providing server to an image forming device installed on an internal local network from the service providing server, thereby producing a printed output.
There is a firewall between the local network and the internet, so the data cannot be sent to the image forming device installed on the local network from the service providing server on the internet even when a print instruction is given by the user to the service providing server. In order to allow such data transmission, an image forming system as shown in FIG. 17 is introduced, for example.
A conventional image forming system 100 of FIG. 17 includes a service providing server 103 on an internet 101, an image forming device 105 and a relay server 110 on a local network 102 such as an internal LAN (Local Area Network). The relay server 110 relays communications between the image forming device 105 and the service providing server 103. When the relay server 110 is booted, for example, it establishes and maintains connection 111 with the service providing server 103 on the internet 101. As a result, the service providing server 103 is allowed to transmit and receive data to and from the relay server 110 on the local network 102 over the firewall established between the local network 102 and the internet 101. When detecting a user print instruction of document data 104, the service providing server 103 is allowed to send the document data 104 to the local network 102 using the connection 111 with the relay server 110, allowing a print job to be sent to the image forming device 105 via the relay server 110.
On the above-described conventional image forming system 100, the user operates the image forming device 105 to make the image forming device 105 access the service providing server 103, thereby using the cloud service. Thus, an application 106 to access the service providing server 103 to use the cloud service is installed in advance on the image forming device 105. The user boots the application 106 on the image forming device 105 so that he or she is allowed to use the cloud service with the image forming device 105.
The above-mentioned application 106 is installed on the image forming device 105 on the local network 102 of the service user when a service contract of the cloud service provided by the service providing server 103 is concluded, for instance. During the period the contract is in effect, the installed application 106 is remain.
In order to terminate the use of the cloud service, the service user applies to a service provider for termination of the service. The service provider deletes information relating to the service user who has applied for the service termination registered in user registration information. Also, the service provider deletes the application 106 installed on the image forming device 105 on the service user's local network 102. The service provider normally deletes the application 106 via a remote control over the internet using the connection 111 between the relay server 110 and the service providing server 103.
There may be a time lag between the time of submission of the service termination application by the service user and the deletion of the application 106 by the service provider. In such a case, when the service provider deletes the application 106, the relay server 110 has already been removed from the local network 102. The service provider then is not allowed to delete the application 106 installed on the image forming device 105 via a remote control over the internet. As a result, the unnecessary installed application 106 is remain on the image forming device 105 even after the cloud service is terminated, resulting in occupation of the image forming device 105's resource.
With regard to this problem, every information relating to a deleted user is conventionally deleted automatically when a process to delete the user registration is performed, for example, so that storage region is not unnecessarily occupied. This known technique is introduced for example in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. JP 2006-168069 A. This known technique may be applied when the information relating to the service user who has applied the service termination is deleted from user registration information based on the service termination applied by the service user. Even with the known technique, if the relay server 110 has already been removed from the local network 102, the application 106 installed on the image forming device 105 still cannot be deleted from outside of the local network 2.
Hence, in order to delete the application 106 installed on the image forming device 105, the service provider is conventionally required to visit the installation site of the image forming device 105 and work to delete the application 106.